Saturday, May 31, 2025

Memorial Training Weekend trilogy: part 3, to the Baylands

35 hilly miles on Saturday, 31 miles to Lexington Reservoir on Sunday, I just had to run 34 miles on Memorial Day, Monday. For that I picked the easiest option, running from home to the Palo Alto Baylands and around the Palo Alto golf and airport. Such a familiar course that I didn't take any picture for a change.

The whole purpose of these training weekends is to run on tired legs, spend hours on your feet and, for me on the mental preparation side, run the distance of the next upcoming 100-mile race which will be Cool Moon this year.

This third run crossed one of the most recent Mid Pen parks, thanks to an arrangement with POST (Peninsula Open Space Trust), a non-profit which I love and support, acting as a buffer between the high value of land in the Bay Area and the need to preserve natural habitat for future generations.

Mid Pen just released a wonderful guide of its 25 parks, available on paper at its headquarters in Los Altos, or in pdf format downloadable here.


During this trilogy, I now realize I visited 4 of these parks (at the top of the list below), plus 6 others at recent races and training runs these past weeks:
  • Fremont Older Open Space Preserve (OSP)
  • Montebello OSP
  • St. Joseph's Hill OSP
  • Stevens Creek Shoreline Nature Area OSP
  • Skyline Ridge OSP
  • Picchetti Ranch OSP
  • Rancho San Antonio OSP
  • Ravenswood OSP
  • Russian Ridge OSP
  • Sierra Azul OSP

Plus other local parks, mostly County-managed:
  • Upper Stevens Creek
  • Almaden Quicksilver
  • Lexington Reservoir
  • Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve
  • Don Edwards (National) Wildlife Preserve
  • Rancho San Antonio
  • McClellan Ranch Preserve

Mere competition with my friend Chuck Wilson who has been averaging 2 different parks a day since the beginning of the year, yet a list which attests how blessed we are with the number of easily accessible parks all around us in the Bay Area and the Midpeninsula in particular.

These 100 miles haven't been easy, averaging a 8:40 min/mile pace, NOT counting numerous breaks, but I'm glad I reached my initial lofty goal on the road of rebuilding both physically and mentally. And, depleting my body with low carb input, I retrained and rewired key basics for racing, including lowering my weight to what used to be my optimal, a few years ago. Collecting these wraps to send to Terracycle through the GU Energy recycling program.


With that, and following with another 100-mile week, as I write this post a week later, it's time to enjoy some tapering since Coros has been yelling my running was excessive for the past 2 weeks now... Granted, out of 10 ultra runs so far this year, 6 in May! While it feels good to ramp back up I still need to find the right balance not to break again... As we say in ultra running, we are all an experiment of n=1 so good luck to you too!




Memorial Weekend Training trilogy: part 2, back to the Dammit memory lane!

After the hilly 35 miles on day 1, my plan was to log 16 easy flat miles along the rail track this Sunday then run my 50-mile route to Fremont on Monday. So I left home with only a pack of GU Chews and one bottle of GU Brew (aka GU2O). Although I typically take 1 S!Caps at the turn around on Winchester, but I even forgot to take any with me this time. I mention this because, 4 miles into my run, I started thinking I'd rather go longer to avoid having to spend 7 or 8 hours on my run on Monday. Maybe 20 miles? Or maybe even longer for another ultra training run?

A few weeks ago, I wrote about continuing onto Winchester, taking left, along the track. Not a great trail with lose rocks. This time I took right for 2 blocks, then left on Lark Avenue and there was the Los Gatos Creek Trail to score a few miles. I very rarely see any soul on the 6-mile segment along the track since it isn't an official trail, except for a couple of short sections within Saratoga. The contrast with the busy Los Gatos Creek Trail was quite a shock: walkers, runners, cyclists, you have to remain on your toes, literally! With so many humans, at least you get a few convenient drinking fountains at least.

Running that trail brought back many memories, including a San Jose marathon edition (maybe 1999 or 2000, I wasn't blogging back then, and the svmarathon.com website domain has disappeared in 2021; illustrating that even in our data intensive age, records aren't safe for ever; thankfully, the Internet/Web Archive, WayBack Machine, is still up; yet, I could access the 1999 results, but not the 2000 ones; nor could I retrieve the course map which was what I was looking for).

Anyway, after a few more miles, I got onto the final miles of Los Gatos Creek Trail and up the infamous Lexington Reservoir Dam: the terrain of the Dammit Run tradition which ran for several decades before being killed by the pandemic. A 5-mile loop from the Los Gatos High School track, mostly on trails and including some serious climbs. Short of blogging back then, and the loggatosdammitrun.com website being dead too, I still have my log to refresh my memory. According to this blog post, 2019 was the 47th and last edition.


Again, I wouldn't have remembered without the help of that log, I ran 4 editions:
  • 2003: 30'17" (6:06 min/mile)
  • 2004: 30'24" (6:07)
  • 2005: 29'24" (5:55)
  • 2006: 30'59" (6:14)
I have to say that, especially after struggling to slog the steep mile to climb over the Lexington Reservoir's dam, then the killer St. Joseph's hill this Sunday, I'm quite impressed with these times and pace averages. Time flies and speed is all relative, literally.

I retraced my way on Los Gatos Creek Trail except for a detour to pick some Gatorade and a Snickers bar since I hadn't properly planned for this long run. By some incredible serendipity again, in reference to that above April post for instance, Stevens Creek Striders club mate, Peter Hargreaves, spotted me while driving through Los Gatos. He couldn't stop so we just exchanged a quick sign but amazed at the odds.

Here is a Relive.cc flyover with pictures and video clips of the Wildcat mini train at Vasona Lake:


6 days later, as I write this post, I'm back from a repeat, this time with some serious heat training with temperatures topping 93F. While I didn't die --phew!-- I have to admit the heat made it much more difficult. Not pressed by time, I actually stopped for 2 hours overall, including 30 minutes to cool down in the Los Gatos Creek Trail at mile 15, at the end of that Dammit loop. Quite some current in the creek and soaking my feet for 20 minutes felt so good. A luxury not available while racing...


At mile 24, I even stopped at the Seven Springs Fire Station to ask for some ice. And I got plenty! With all the stops at water fountains and bathrooms to cool down, it was already 6 pm so the shade was also helping. Overall, I didn't push to the whole 50K, only 29 miles this time.












Monday, May 26, 2025

Memorial Training Weekend trilogy: part 1, saving Private Waterwheel

Most of the people familiar with the legendary 100-mile Western States Endurance Run would have heard about the Memorial Training tradition which has been running for several decades. For me, my first edition was a few weeks before my first Western States run in 2007. I was so excited that, on the first day, I ran from Robinson Flat to Forest Hill, per the group plan, but continued on down to the river in Rucky Chucky, for 47 miles in one go. And a good lesson, a good bonk and late return to Forest Hill... After that, I stuck with the plan for day 2 and 3, totaling 88 miles for the weekend (that was my first year blogging). 

After that, I made a tradition to run very long that 3-day weekend, albeit without the travel and logistics of driving and staying at Forest Hill. Thus saving more time to work on my first job...

  • 2008 was crazy with 126 super hilly miles (Quicksilver 50-mile course, Ohlone and PG&E repeats at Rancho San Antonio), even practicing getting paced by Max in preparation to my second Western States run, only for that edition being canceled due to major wildfires.
  • In 2009 I named the weekend: BAWSMDWETC (Bay Area Wester States Memorial Day WeekEnd Training Camp). 122 hilly miles as well (Mission Peak x6, Quicksilver 50-mile course, PG&E x4).
  • In 2010, before my 3rd and last Western States, I scaled down with only 2 days and 49 hilly miles (Mission Peak and PG&E repeats).
  • 2011 was completely different with a focus on speed work before the World Masters in Sacramento (8th overall in the 10K but 2 age group medals on the marathon, individual bronze and leading Team USA for a team gold).
  • 2014 had only 87 miles, hilly ones on the first day (Black Mountain), then flat ones.
  • In 2016, 90 miles over three days and some good heat training before Tahoe Rim Trail 100 (my biggest failed event with 3 DNFs total...).
  • In 2017, 80 miles although I was mostly focused on recovery.

I skipped the past years due to two major injuries (2018 and 2024) but I'm not seriously rebuilding, at least as much as my torn meniscus allows, with a big goal mid June, Cool Moon 100. As I shared the past few weeks, I like to run the race distance over either 2 or 3 days so that was the goal this year.


On Saturday, I ran to the top of Black Mountain via the classic route I shared on several older posts, Montebello Road. For the interest of time, I'll just list the trails I then went on, to come back to the title of this post. After a first passage at the summit --I know, that's only 2,800 feet...-- I went down Bella Vista then up again on Indian Creek, down on Bella Vista then down Canyon trail all the way down Stevens Creek Canyon road. Then up on Lookout, Coyote Ridge, down to the Seven Springs Loop in Fremont Older, then home, along the rail tracks from Prospect to McClellan. A cute anecdote: at the bottom of Seven Springs 2 rangers were trying to catch speeding up bikes with a radar. They got me at 14 mph, duh! And I was 29 miles in a 35-mile run! We had a good laugh and chat.


So, back to the title: at the top of Montebello Road, I veered left on Water Wheel trail, one of my favorite, very rarely seeing anyone there as it takes a permit to park on the small lot. Favorite because, especially in hot days, there is a very refreshing spring which typically still runs late in the summer. Well... to my dismay, a tree fell on the frail plumbing installation which I've known for more than 10 years. I'm going to have to check with my friend and Mid Pen volunteer, Chuck Wilson, who I can contact to see if that can be repaired. Being one of the very few users, I'm ready to give a hand...

Overall, a great day with many stops along the way to simply enjoy life. While working hard as Coros can testify. In this fly over, I even included a few clips while running on Canyon trail, to better illustrate the speed. But I agree, holding the camera in one hand while taking care of 2 bottles in the other, and no stabilizer, sucks. You've been warned! ;-) Video also includes a survey of the Water Wheel spring carnage, a new house up on Montebello with quite a view, healthy creeks and more views.


A great day to be out there with so many creeks still flowing strong, and a few flowers enjoying the cooler weather, still. May miss the heat training for Cool Moon but at least I feel better with some hill work. More for day 2 and 3, next!

PS: more pictures. First, still not a trail but makes the climb of the (Stevens Creek Reservoir) dam much easier, almost a carpet!
The reservoir still almost full, with still a good inflow of water from the Stevens Creek and feeding creeks.
That brand new house up high on Montebello, with quite a view!

The fallen tree, recently uprooted from what I can tell.
Above the Pacific fog.

Black Mountain #2

Top of Lookout.
Seven Springs loop, above Cupertino.


Saturday, May 17, 2025

Quicksilver 100K 2025: back to racing as ultimate training!

201 ultra races and a first: I had to leave 20 minutes before crossing the line, to catch a red eye! Well, I've gone straight to SFO right after Ohlone 2012 for a long flight to Dubai, not having even the time to get a shower, but I had 40 minutes to recover! And it was only half the distance. And a much longer flight than the 5 hours to get to Boston. I starts with this introduction and situation because it added some pressure to keep pushing: I could NOT use the whole 17 hours allotted to finish that grueling event.

Time wise, still rebuilding after last year's meniscus tear, I was certainly hoping to do better than the 13 hours of 2023. Even 12 hours wouldn't leave me much time to stop by the house before driving to the airport. 11 hours would be better. By the way, for the non insiders, this is all based on a start time of 4:30 for the 100K (with the companion 50K race starting at 7 am).

I woke up at 1:30 am and got to the Hacienda entrance of the Almaden Quicksilver Park by 3:15 am, only to find co-Race Director, Loren, holding off the incoming traffic until the opening of the gate at 3:30 am. Not able to run last year, I was holding the position of directing traffic through the first parking lot so I thanked the team in charge this year (including Jeff who was meticulously positioning cars on a precise line and as packed/close to each other as possible).



This year, the bibs were at the sign-in table on time, and there were plenty of porta-potties so no excuse to start late. After a short briefing, our Club President and co-Race Director, Stuart, sent us straight up Mine Hill, on the footsteps of valorous miners which contributed to the development of this area during the Gold Rush.

I ran the first steps along Gilles, losing sight of more than a dozen youngsters ahead after just a couple of turns. I was thinking of the times I ran upfront and, having just trouble breathing on this first steep incline, thought that there will be a lot of walking today, ouch! Indeed, I did start power walking as soon as we turned onto English Camp Trail. Alternating walking and jogging was the best I could do given the current shape. Given the walking, I was surprised that my first mile was still under 13 minutes (12:13), but it did hurt to think of the times I would run that one under 10. After this rough warm-up, I could pick up the pace a bit down to 11:15 min for the second mile then 9:30 and 7:45 for the next two miles on Bull Run and down to the cemetery turn-around.

I got on that out-and-back section barely before seeing Steven Kool being back from the cemetery, already almost a mile ahead of us, wow! Steven won his past two participations, in course record times, and he seemed resolute to set a new record again. At this point I was in 11th place I believe and ran the next 6 miles with Greg Miller, who reminded me we ran together at Miwok 2016 (what a memory, it was almost 100 ultra races ago for me... Thankfully I have my blog, it was a few weeks after my mini stroke and I DNF'ed to err on the safe side after suffering from hypothermia in that foggy edition). I have to thank Greg for keeping me running most of the way up to the highest point of the course, the Woods Road aid station. Without him, given my lack of current self-confidence, I'm sure I would have walked much more. We even closed on the second female runner (Michelle Kent?) and another runner I didn't know, Ryan Hartwig.

They both stopped at the station while, carrying 2 bottles, I went straight through, passed them and flew down Limekiln. I didn't want to over do it, saving what's left of my meniscus, and preserving my quads, but what cool sensations to clock 7:13, 6:57, 7:30, 7:23, 8:23 and 7:47 miles on that section to make up for the minutes lost in walking on the climb to Woods Rd. With that, I thought I would have created a good lead over Ryan but he reached the Lexington Reservoir aid station just as I was leaving, after a few teammates helped me refill my bottles. For his first 100K, ex-teammate and speedster, Andrew Catanese, had dropped very early at this aid station.

That section up on Priest Rock Trail is the first real wall of the day. In 2023, I was glad to have poles to help moving up and forward but poles weren't allowed this year, to comply with Western States qualifier criteria (this race is one of the coveted events which, if you finish within the allotted time, you can enter the Western States 100-mile lottery). I used to say that the whole course is runnable, and you certainly cannot walk in order to place on the podium, but gone are the years I was in shape to do it.

At the top of Priest, Laura was officiating as course monitor and I asked for a picture, there you are!


After the grueling climb, we go all the way down to San Jose on Kennedy. I was at mile 23 when I saw Steven coming back up, I had already fallen 5 miles behind, duh! Second place was almost a mile behind, then a group of 4 other young guys running together. Getting to the Kennedy aid station, I figured out I was in 9th place and probably first Masters (above 40). Far behind the leaders but still, quite honorable for a 60+ old guy. I wouldn't lie though, despite that encouraging place or maybe due to such a strong start, I was already quite toasted by mile 25, not a great physical and mental state to be at that point of the race. I did manage to thank my club mates manning the station but they must have worried a little... Although I bet they must have seen much worse in the following hours.

Indeed, the next 6 miles (25-31) up to Woods Road aid station represent the second wall of the day to climb. I have to thank all those I crossed on that section and who provided encouragements, and apologize for not having enough breadth and stamina to acknowledge and give some encouragement back. I even got a "we love your blog!" which was really cool and sweet to hear. Still, having to climb back the 3.5 miles we descended on Kennedy Trail is mentally challenging, and physically too of course. Needless to say, I was glad to see Laura again at the top, phew! And I had to make her repeat her warning to me: "beware of the peacocks!" I've seen peacocks at the bottom of Montebello Road often but there, nope, another first! learning from running in Costa Rica, I picked a stone, in case they would get upset but they seemed to just getting their workout as I saw a video on Facebook of Dominick getting to the Woods aid station with these big birds, 2 miles from where I saw them!

The lead gal, Amanda, who beat me at the Horseshoe 35K last month, arrived at the Woods Road aid station as I was leaving. I wasn't feeling much better than at the Kennedy aid station but at least the next 6 miles were mostly down this time. For those who aren't familiar, even running downhill hurts on tired legs. The first 3 miles were ok but I could feel cramping was going to come. I did stop at the spot where a creek crosses the trail, in the shade, to damp my hat and cool my quads. Shortly after, as both legs froze so I had to stop, Amanda passed me. To some extent, that decreased the pressure and I was able to follow her for the next 3 miles to Hicks Road aid station where she barely stopped but I stayed for at least 2 minutes, enjoying the company of Clare and other club mates.

I walked some of the next uphills, seeing Amanda disappear far ahead as we were passing under the old mine machinery. The return to Hacienda wasn't pleasant and my legs froze a few times again on the very uneven Deep Gulch Trail. Despite my slow pace, I was stunned to catch up and pass Amanda just before getting to Hacienda. It was her first 100K, she was probably experiencing some cramping too. We were now at mile 41, after 7 hours of running.

I was carrying a plastic bag which I asked the volunteers to fill with ice, so I could have some fresh one to use at my car. After a few minutes at my car, our race team captain, Gary, showed up to help, that was cool. Despite this assistance, I still lost 7-8 minutes to change, get new insulated Ultimate Direction bottles, refills of Vespa and GU, reapply some sunscreen and vaseline and, critically, a bandana full of ice.

I got back on the course as Dominick was running through the timing mat. As I write this, I see my split was 7:07:14 versus 7:15:23 for Dom. And Amanda was 7:09 but she didn't stop as much as I did. After this long pit stop, I felt refreshed and was actually able to run some of the uphills on Mine Hill then Hacienda trail, building a gap on Dom, whom I saw in the distance as I was getting to the Mockingbird aid station where more club mates were assisting. Another couple of minutes lost there to refuel and get more ice in my bottles before I left, this time without much enthusiasm at all and mentally unable to run any uphills in the next two miles.

As I was slowing down, Dom passed me on Day Tunnel Trail, at mile 46.7. I was toast, most especially mentally. I still managed to shuffle on the way up to the Bull Run aid station maned by my fellow Stevens Creek Striders. Looking really strong, Chengquan Li arrived at the aid station as I was leaving. He passed me a mile later on Prospect #3. Thanks to a focus on taking more oxygen, a key trick it took me years to get, I wasn't cramping too bad but I had lost my motivation and felt ok to switch to a damage control mode, with still 12 miles to go and the heat rising. Speaking of heat, it wasn't too bad thank to a breeze and all the shade over New Alamaden. Yet, it takes some stamina to keep moving on this winding and rolling single track. So much that there were a few 50K runners suffering too and barely moving.

After several miles at 14 or 15 minutes, I finally reached the McAbee aid station. Just before, I crossed an enthusiastic group including Andrew; it was Amanda's crew, and it didn't even cross my mind that she might have been just a few minutes ahead. The second gal came into the station as I spent 4 minutes getting ice in my bandana and cooling off in the shade of the tent.

I kept walking most of the uphills, that took so long, I hate walking... And I got chicked again at about a mile before our second passage through Bull Run. This time I just stopped for a minute, to get ice in my water bottle. A mile later, I passed the legendary Gordy Ainsleigh, first runner of the Western States 100, who complimented for still doing all these runs. I wasn't carrying my phone so no selfie this time and I was actually moving quite fast down to English Camp. 2 miles to go with about 20 minutes before the 12-hour mark, there was really no time to waste. I clocked 9:31 and 8:09 for miles 60 and 61 and gave it all in the last downhill to Hacienda. PS: Stuart corrected me, there wasn't any Gordy on the 50K... I feel I deserve a speeding ticket for the oversight which I'll blame on going too fast. Unless this is just AI hallucination as this post was 100% AI made up (ahem, I mean, generated)! ;-) BTW, I would have also been mistaken as I'd swear I had seen Gordy on this course before. But, per UltraSignup, his only and last appearance was on the 50-mile in 2005, before my ultra time. Now I feel like I need to claim my senior moment excuse/credit...

I sprinted to the finish and crossed the line in a time of 11:55:36, phew! I dreamed of running 11 today but I was thinking of the lower side. Far from my 9:45 of 2015 or 10:14 of 2016, but better than the 13:07 of 2023 at least (granted, that was a burning year). 13th overall, 10th in Men, 3rd Masters and 1st in my age group by 1h40.

While I had some pride in these numbers, as an older guy, I was stunned to hear that Steven had won the race for the third time in a record time of 8:44:51! At this rate, if he keeps lowering that benchmark, we might lose the Western States qualifier label... Steven now has 3 of the top 10 performances. Incidentally, my 13th place earned an embarrassing 73% score on UltraSignup (ratio only based on time, no age consideration...). The next three finished 40 minutes behind Steven, within 4 minutes: Connor Rosenblatt, 30, Carl Koopmans, 36 and Daniel Lingenfelter, 37. On the women side, Amanda Wiggenhorn took the win in 11:44:28, followed by Melissa Taylor and Amber Weibel, the three finishing within 8 minutes, that was close!

While I smile on these pictures between Steven and Dom (credit to Laura McNeil), I wasn't feeling that good, stressed by the count down which which had started as soon as I finished. I gave myself 20 minutes before leaving, I didn't even see Gordy finish. I still had a few ice cubes in my bandana when I got home...



I was still able to spend 50 minutes in my Normatec compression boots before driving to the airport. And get just under 4 hours of sleep, plus a 90-minute nap upon arriving at Max's apartment in Boston. For a change, because of the cramping, I got sore on Monday and Tuesday. I don't think my fatigue in the last 30K was due to electrolyte imbalance as I drank more than usual, and took at least one S!Cap every hour. I think it was more the unusual effort as I can't run as many miles as before and had limited hill training so far. And I know I'm still behind on the rebuilding all the glutes, hamstring and quad mass I had before the past two injuries. But it still shows that the effort and discipline are working and paying off. Next big (huge!) test: Cool Moon 100 in a month... Back to the title, the emulation I get from racing is really the ultimate excuse to push, and train, harder!

Here is the traditional fly-over so you can run the whole thing from your seat! ;-) (Click on the picture below or this link.)


What a special Bay Area ultrarunning tradition this event has been since 1984. I only joined that series in 2009 and ran 17 editions since (5 50K, 2 50-mile and now 8 100K). I'm so grateful to still have a good buffer to keep going, if the body holds... And super grateful to my club mates who allow me to be on that side of the party while they run the show and back stage! It really takes a village around our co-RDs, plus the Striders manning Bull Run. Having to leave early made me feel bad for not having time to stop by Mockingbird to give a hand to Kristina, our aid station coordination queen. Thank you all, I heard so many compliments about your personal care on social medias.

229 registered, 25 DNS, 76 DNF, 128 finishers, it wasn't the most grueling edition, thanks again to the breeze, but special thoughts to all who couldn't fulfill their dream of completing the course in time. What an effort it is indeed, hoping we can all do it again together next year!


Sunday, May 4, 2025

Back to ultra training runs. Some hill but no heat training.

Back in the good ol' days, 10 to 15 years ago, I had run 12 to 14 ultras leading to Quicksilver, every year. Including Miwok 100K for the crazy back to back Miwok-Quicksilver-Ohlone. Granted, Quicksilver wasn't always a 100K, it was initially a 50-mile, until Western States required to extend it to 100K to remain a qualifier.

This year, I was at 3 ultras before this weekend. Feeling so behind albeit pleased to still be able to run at all after that meniscus injury last year. 2 were races (Jed Smith and MadCity) and a return to Black Mountain as a training run. At 29-31 miles, all barely qualifying as ultras per AJW (Andy Jones-Wilkins)...

I haven't run much hills this year; the 13,000 feet of elevation of Quicksilver 100K are going to hurt! It's kind of late to squeeze in hill training, and build the glutes back, but I went back to Black Mountain as a last resort. And it didn't disappoint, I walked a lot! As for the also much needed heat training, that was a complete miss, it was really chilly being in the cloud at the top, yikes!


I synched my start to get to the Stevens Creek Striders club meeting at the reservoir, my former club which I joined in 2003 and where I learned so much about ultra running. Time flies, there were only 3 people I knew, but it's great to see new blood in that club. And Tim and Adam set quite a strong pace at the front of the group!

(Photo credit: Nay Wei Soong)

I left the group at the end of Zinfandel, to continue straight on the steep Canyon Trail, that trail we'll run in September on the grueling Stevens Creek Reservoir Half. I stopped at the top to take a few GU Energy Chews and one S!Caps. On my way back toward the Stevens Creek Canyon Road, I crossed the group which was running that loop anti-clockwise.

Back to the road I turned left, toward Black Mountain. A few miles of asphalt, then back on Canyon Trail along the Stevens Creek. I climbed to the campground on the steeper Indian Creek Trail and down on Bella Vista Trail. I had never seen so many bikes on such a run, maybe 2 dozen total. And quite a few hikers despite the cool overcast weather. It reminded me of the beginning of the pandemic when crowds were flowing these trails!

As I mentioned above, quite some walking on the way up, but I kept pushing whenever I could albeit not too crazy to avoid any injury, one week before the race. I twisted my ankle only once, while jumping over the healthy-running creek at the transition between Palo Alto and Cupertino. I ended up with 33 miles at an average pace of 9:37, not counting numerous stops.

Speaking of creeks, they are all quite strong and, wonder, the reservoir is full! I read this week that the largest reservoir in California has also filled again, 3 years in a row. I hope they can divert back some of this water under ground where decades of intensive agriculture have depleted centuries of reserve.





Here is a Relive.cc flyover (click on image below or this link).


Since I ran slower on Saturday, I didn't cramp and wasn't too sore on Sunday. The biggest hurdle was a lot of chaffing on Saturday, I'd better pay more attention on race day in a week!

I've made a habit when I was healthy, to run the next race distance over 2 days, or 3 days for a 100-miler, a couple of weekends before the race, as ultimate preparation. My goal was then to run a 50K this Sunday, if I could manage. Yet, a flat one to preserve the knee. My classic route to the Palo Alto Baylands through Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, Shoreline Park. This time it was sunny so at least I got to spend a few hours in the sun. But the breeze was still cooling the air. Since I left later though, I could get a bit of heat training between noon and 2, and my shirt got salty at least.


I was able to hold a 8 min/mile pace until mile 23 then I faltered a bit. Not counting fewer stops than yesterday, I ended up with 4:12:25 for the 50K, an 8:07 pace. Coros' feedback was that this run was excessive. Interestingly enough, it said the same yesterday but not this Sunday morning so, maybe, it acknowledge I had recover much faster than the prescribed 90+ hours...


We'll have to see on race day how hot it's going to be. At least we start early (4:30 am, duh!) so the morning should be fine.

That was a good test overall. Not feeling very confident about the uphills, and not even the downhills with the knee; I'll have to take it easy and accept to be slower, on a course I loved to hammer otherwise, a few years ago. Going for number 8, after last year's DNS. And I have a red eye for Boston just after the race so better finish not too late in the afternoon... Meanwhile, a well-deserved tapering week. Then the excitement for this Bay Area ultra tradition and party!